The present invention relates to a synchronous information reproduction apparatus, a synchronous information reproduction method and a storage medium storing therein a synchronous information reproduction program for synchronizing and reproducing multimedia information such as music performance information, polygon CG animation data, movie data and musical tone waveform sample data.
There is known a method of synchronizing and reproducing multimedia information such as musical tones, images and voices. For example, in parallel to reproduction of music performance information such as MIDI information, various kinds of multimedia information such as image information like CG (computer graphics) images, movie images, sound, and musical tone waveform information are reproduced.
However, in a conventional apparatus for reproducing multimedia information in association with music performance information, there is a problem that synchronism between the music performance information and the image information or the like is lost when a tempo of the music performance information is changed during the course of the reproduction.
Thus, in order to eliminate such a disadvantage, there is proposed a synchronous information reproduction method capable of synchronously reproducing a video even if a tempo of a musical tone which is automatically reproduced is changed during the course of the reproduction (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 333673/1998). This method prepares a synchronization information table, in which location information indicative of a series of song points, music tempo information and a time at which these sets of information are updated are associated with each other. This conventional method can reproduce a video synchronized with a change in tempo of a song by making a reference to the table. As a result, even if a tempo of the song is changed along the way, the video can be reproduced without losing the synchronization. However, the synchronization information table must be prepared and this table needs to be sequentially restructured in this method. Thus, the synchronization processing and creation of the reproduction content are troublesome.
Further, another conventional apparatus which associates musical information with image information and the like for reproduction reproduces the musical information and the image information by a single player device, but does not reproduce the musical information and the associated image information by using a multiple of player devices connected through a network and the like.
Furthermore, in order to reproduce the musical information and the image information, a time difference after starting reproduction process or commanding reading of each information till an actual output is not taken into consideration, and hence there is no guarantee that each information is reproduced with desired timing.
Moreover, there is a demand for reproducing not only the image information but also other multimedia information such as musical tone, e.g., WAVE data or sound waveform sample data in association with the MIDI performance information.